The Dark Mist

Taking Up New Hobbies

                                                                                     9

Becca walked into the house, closed the door, set the alarm, ran up the stairs into the bathroom, whipped off her jeans, jacket and sweater, unzipped her suit from the back, pulled everything down and went to the washroom. She gave a sigh of relief. There had to be a simpler way. She had a good time beating up those two people, but after taking the gloves from her hands she could see a different coloration in her skin. Slightly bruised, but not too bad, though it could've been worse. Her gloves were supposed to keep her warm in the winter, not be used for punching people. She only felt the soreness after all the adrenaline was gone which was when she entered this bathroom and sat on the toilet seat. Funny how she didn't need to go to the bathroom before she left. Tomorrow morning, she would get a sewing machine. She knew she could get one from the clothing and textiles department at the university. They could rent sewing machines for a week. It was a way for that department to make money. Becca didn't mind at all. She had to get a better outfit than the one she already had. Had to get better lots of things. After going to the bathroom, she took off the suit, jumped into her jeans and threw on her sweater. She threw the suit into her room, closed the door and ran down stairs, grabbed her boots and her backpack and ran those up into her room. She went back downstairs and saw she had left nothing about the night she had had. Becca returned to her room and took out the crossword puzzle book and put that into her dark blue backpack. This night crusader stuff was hard work. At least Benji would be safe.

She took a shower, folded her suit and put it into her drawer. Becca tucked herself in bed then fell asleep.

In the morning, she went downstairs, grabbed a quick breakfast of a banana and went to the College. She had work to do. The bus was quiet since she was early and there were many vacant seats. She leaned her head against the side of the window as the bus carried on to the College. When she got to the College, she pressed the button to get off, then found her favorite coffee shop inside. She got herself a coffee and a muffin. The muffin was chocolate chip and the coffee was just coffee, cream and sugar. She had hacked into the Physics website again, the graduate student area before she left for her rendezvous. She had seen Carl Attenborough's paper and the many comments about how it was a good theory but not practical enough and they poked a lot of holes in his arguments and she could see what they were talking about. His funding had been denied. That was why it was important she leave home early. Becca finished her muffin, slung her backpack onto her shoulder and walked to the Physics building. She wore a sweater, a long skirt and surprisingly the boots from last night. They were quite fashionable with her skirt, also kept her warm. When she got to the Physics Lab, Carl Attenborough was there, slamming things into a box. She could see him moving his lips and it looked like he was cursing. It might be a bad time, and ordinarily she'd come back, but she needed him to see her like this. As if she was bothering him.

"Excuse me, sorry to bother you," said Becca, laughing to herself because she remembered to especially use the word bother. "My name is Becca Anderson." She offered her hand.

Carl Attenborough frowned and looked down at her from his glasses. "I remember you from yesterday. What do you want?"

"I was told to give this to you." She handed him a folded slip of paper.

"What the hell is this?" he said grabbing the paper from her.

"A friend of mine wants to meet you tonight."